The Good World Hotel Xi An Xi'an

... an experience and that’s exactly what it was. Twisted, turned, cracked and pounded was the only way I can describe it. At one point the little Chinese lady jumped up onto the massage table like a crouching tiger just pounced and proceeded to walk all over me, pounding me with her feet as she went! At one point I was laughing so hard (out of pure amusement or pain I’m still not sure) that she too turned to a fit of ...

... il y en a des millions d'autres!

Je m'envole demain pour Tokyo et bien sûr je ne pouvais pas repartir de Chine sans mon petit stock de contrefaçons : polo Lacoste à 5 Euros et paire d'Adidas à 7 Euros. Le crocodile fait un peu la tronche sur mon polo mais les trois bandes de mes chaussures sont bien alignées. Je ne me fais pas de soucis pour le passage des douanes en France parce que je ne pense pas qu'ils tiendront jusque là.

A bientôt au Japon,

... for the enormous amount of stress they must feel at such a young age. When I asked Yixuan about her hobbies, she was hesitant to come up with an answer, saying "I am busy and I do not have much free time."

The students then said goodbye and we headed to lunch in the cafeteria. My expectations for a cafeteria lunch were extremely low, and so my surprise was great indeed with what we received! It was by far the most delicious and beautifully presented meal I have ...

... Coke or spell it as Coca-Cola.

We ended up back at the East Gate. The East Gate was built during the reign of a Ming Emperor, Hong Wu, in 1370. It was 40 yuan each ($6+) to go to the top of the gate and walk or ride a bike around the wall (bike rental is extra). On our way up the stairs we were stopped by a lady and her mom. We had our photo taken with the mom and then there was a big fuss and some giggling because Bill kissed the mom on the cheek. Then we had our photo taken ...

... King classic by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it travelled the globe. This and other songs such as "One Love" will be released as digital downloads soon; followed by the film soundtrack and DVD early next year. Sign up at www.playingforchange.com for updates and exclusive content available only to those who do. Join the Movement to help build schools ...

... in a relatively small atrium with an eagle where they could only manage a swoop to the next branch. Then there were brown bears, kept in pairs in concrete and wire cages measuring about 4m by 3m. We were told that these were temporary conditions, but it was hard to see where else they could go. The saddest inmate, however, was a leopard that had been found near a farmers house. It had been captured and brought here where it had lived in a similar cage to the ...

What an incredible day. An early flight out to Xi'an to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. We were picked up at the airport by our private guide, "Alan." Something tells me that wasn't his given name. He was a nice guy and very informative. It was well worth the money hiring a private tour guide. First he took us to a shop where they make terra cotta warriors of all different sizes for sale in local shops. It ...

... we have found!). Later we walked to the Bell Tower to try to visit it, but it was closed for some reason. We carried on the the train station to investigate transport options to Hua Shan for the next day. At the train station we noticed that there were many people camping out, and a high police presence. Later we found out that these were people stranded in Xi'an as they could not return to Sichuan. The police were there as there had been small scale riots happened as ...

I don't even know where to start... So we survived the train ride, I think I got about 4 hours sleep. Jes slept pretty good, if it wasn't for Mr. snore-a-lot above us, we both would have slept better. So after following the wave of people out the train station, only to be greeted with a huge crowd outside and snow pouring down, we were able to find our pick-up guy (actually there were 3 people). We weaved in and out of a massive crowd, which we figured were waiting ...

... China about 200 B.C. Upon our arrival in Xian, we stopped off at the Shaanxi Province Historical Museum. At this museum we entered through several vault-like doors and had a viewing of about 10 artifacts. The artifacts were described by a musuem expert and we were allowed to put on white gloves and handle a couple of the items - a silver mirror and a copper vase.